Pope greets Orthodox delegation
Pope Benedict XVI pressed his desire to see Christians fully united today as he greeted an Orthodox Christian delegation at the start of a ceremony marking the feast of St Peter and St Paul.
Benedict shook hands and briefly greeted the three-member delegation sent from the spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Orthodox, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who attended the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
In his opening prayer, Benedict said he thanked God “for the unity and universality of the Church”.
Benedict has made improving relations with Christians, and healing the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox, a “fundamental priority" of his Papacy.
During the Mass, Benedict was to bestow the pallium, or a woollen shawl, on 32 metropolitan archbishops from around the world to symbolise their bond with the Vatican.
